Man charged with conspiracy to commit BTC wire fraud worth $1.2 million

Tushal Rathod, a 44-year-old man from Van Buren, New York, has been charged by the FBI with counterfeiting laundry checks. His former partner, the mother of a six-year-old, reported to the FBI that he saw suspicious screenshots on his device, including evidence of crypto transactions and conversations in other languages.

According to Court filing According to FBI special agent Samuel Morgan, Ruthod is said to have received $1.2 million worth of BTC through a network of seven bank accounts at six different financial institutions. His former partner noticed the plan after Rathod repeatedly complained that his bank account was closed.

Man charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud

Tushal Rahod has been charged with multiple counts, including a conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and money laundering. The alleged crime took place between November 2021 and June 2024. In his court filing, Samuel Morgan revealed that as part of the investigation, the FBI has obtained records from Google at Tushal27@gmail.com for the Apple iCloud account, kluvbbbb110011@gmail.com, which belongs to the same email.

FBI special agent Morgan claimed that Rathod incorporated the two companies used in the scheme. In 2016, Rathod registered T3 Telecom, LLC, the telecommunications company that tested and deployed network devices. We also incorporated TSV Telecom Constructions LLC in 2021.

Morgan added that between April 2022 and June 2024, the accused received more than $1.7 million in fraudulent income from Business Mail Compromise (BEC) fraud and counterfeiting checks. The defendant receives funds through six different financial institutions, five accounts belonging to T3 telecommunications and one belonging to TSV telecommunications.

BEC fraud comes from compromised employee login credentials through spear phishing. The scammers intercept information about the company’s future payments, deceive the vendor and ensure that they complete payments through fake domains.

Rathod used at least $1.2 million in revenue to purchase Bitcoin and sent it to different external addresses. Three financial institutions, including Wells Fargo, contacted him in 2022 and notified him that the money received in his account was fraudulent and that the account would be closed.

Later that year, M&T Bank also contacted Rathod to inform him of the fraudulent funds, but he answered with a fake invoice to justify the funds as legitimate income. The accused stopped contacting M&T Bank after police records were filed.

Rathod faces a 20-year prison sentence if convicted

Defendant Tushal Rathod is said to have recruited others to support his plan, the owner of an iCloud account associated with his former girlfriend, kluvbb110011@gmail.com.

According to a court filing by Samuel Morgan, Ruthod recruited families to support the scheme between May and July 2024, resulting in an additional $1 million deposit in accounts managed by girlfriends and family. Citibank was able to recover fraudulent funds worth $800,000.

Morgan explained that his training and experience can identify scammers who engage in BEC scams. He added that scammers work with others to use multiple bank accounts to move money through a series of complex transactions that make it difficult to identify sources, calling plots layered or target organizations while making it difficult to identify people who control the funds.

The Rhode Island real estate law firm was the first victim of a reported BEC fraud in 2022, losing around $163,298. The victim has received an email instructing him to impersonate an employee of North Point Bank and send the victim to the account belonging to Carrington Mortgage, a mortgage company associated with a valid real estate transaction. The California credit union was also involved in the scheme as the second victim, losing about $8 million to a bank account managed by other fraudsters.